quilting, baking, building, and crafting in the last frontier

Tag: alaska

Finished quilt! I hung it on the rail of my deck, so the top 2 rows aren’t visible. It finished up at 54″ x 54″ square

I finished up 7 (and a half) other blocks, sewed them together and then quilted, bound and labeled a quilt! I only took a few pictures along the way (bad blogger!). I heard there was a prize if you’re the first to bring a finished quilt back to a participating store… so I didn’t mention it in the last post, but that was my goal. All week I’ve been watching the Row by Row facebook page and seeing people claim the prizes at the stores I visited, so I knew I had to move quickly. I wanted to wrap this up this weekend, and based on stores schedules (ahem, not open on sundays), I wanted to finish by Saturday morning. It really wasn’t much of a stretch until it came to hand-sewing the binding down. I’m not even going to mention what time I went to bed last night!

Anyway, this morning I brought the quilt to a local store (Quilted Raven, downtown Anchorage!) and claimed their prize! They were so sweet and they took my picture for their facebook page (and the Row by Row page). It was definitely a tiny mental challenge to bring in a finished quilt for people to look at (presumably people who were more accomplished and experienced quilters!). I don’t think I’ve ever put myself “out there” like that before, since usually the people looking at the quilt are my close friends/loved ones/recipients. I say “tiny” because I tried not to think about it too much and let it make me nervous– but I recognized the challenge and it felt good to breeze past it.

So now for the technical deets:

I quilted this quilt with a loose wave from side to side, using my walking foot and a blue variegated thread. The backing and binding were from my stash (woo! feels good to use what I’ve got!). I wasn’t sure how much backing fabric I had and it ended up being close to the perfect amount, so that was a happy accident. The print is from Tula Pink’s Saltwater line, which is one of my favorite designers and fabric lines (stay tuned– I’m working on a Saltwater quilt too!). The binding is a grassy green, which worked out nicely. I love a contrasting binding and this was just right!

I made the label by cutting a 6″ square and folding it in half diagonally. It was stitched down under the binding and then ladder-stitched down at the top (when I did the binding). I just used a sharpie. I’ve never labeled a quilt before (at least not by myself!) so I took the easy way. It’s funny I used that light-colored batik only to realize it looks like something I left in the bottom of my swim bag! Hopefully I always remember it’s the fabric and not stained and mildewed, haha.

Here are the stores I visited:

The left side: Quilt Zone, Anchorage and a silhouette of a mermaid I traced from a wall hanging in my house!

The right side: Seams Like Home, Anchorage and bits and pieces of Bearly Threaded, Cooper Landing

The center column, top to bottom:

Robin Place Fabrics, Soldotna

Swift Stitches, Talkeetna

Sew ‘n Bee Cozy, Seward

Sylvia’s Quilt Depot, Wasilla

Quilted Raven, Anchorage

Quilt Cache, Eagle River

I sure love shop hops! I’m looking forward to gathering more blocks (and making duplicates of the ones I’ve collected!) for wall hangings and table runners.

And I’d like to say an extra big thank you to the Quilted Raven!

Shew! Now on to the other projects (and housework) I’ve put off to get this one done!

Here’s another quick catch-up post about a fun trip I took this month. I’m so lucky that my parents come visit me so often, and that they love to explore this huge, amazing state with me! While it’s not actually in Alaska, I’ve always wanted to visit Dawson City, Yukon. So this summer, we went!

Here’s a shot from the Taylor Highway (Alaska side)… or maybe the Top of the World Highway (Canadian side). It’s all so beautiful! There was a lot of smoke from forest fires in this area so it was pretty hazy.

The road to Dawson City is mostly dirt but it was in good shape for our trip. The last leg of the trip was a quick ferry ride across the mighty Yukon River!

The day after we got to Dawson, we kept driving north! We drove to Tombstone Territorial Park along the Dempster Highway. The Dempster is another dirt highway that heads north past the arctic circle.

The center mountain is Tombstone Mountain.Here’s the view from Midnight Dome– an overlook right over Dawson City (though this pic is in the opposite direction from the city).Wild sage between Dawson and Whitehorse

We were flexible with our plans and ended up heading south to Whitehorse instead of going back the way we came.

Totem pole and forest fire smoke in Whitehorse

We made it to Whitehorse in time to take the brewery tour at Yukon Brewery! They have great beer! We checked out Miles Canyon and the next day we headed back north… to Alaska!

We saw a bear on the side of the highway!fireweed at Kluane Lake

It was a nice drive back. I moved to Alaska in March and I have driven to Haines in the fall, but I’ve never been on the Alaska Highway in the summer, so that was fun.

WHITE fireweed!

We had read about fireweed in the Milepost and learned it comes in purple, pink and white. It was then our mission to find this elusive WHITE FIREWEED and we did! So pumped! We also picked a few grocery bags worth of fireweed blossoms and mom made fireweed jelly when we got home.

It was such a fun trip and really great to spend time with Mom and Dad!